Reddit reviews Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome

These are all really interesting questions. I think I know the answers to some, but let me preface all this by saying that I am just a fan of history. I'm definitely not a trained historian. Also, this is all from memory (I'm not opening any books) so I could very well be wrong and would love to be corrected by someone who actually knows WTF they are doing.

>Who was the intermediate authority who commanded groups of legionaries?

I think that would be the Centurions. It was their job to keep their century cohesive and following the general strategy. I think they were also the ones who were cycling the lines after Marius' reforms (e.g. front line would fight for a minute, then fall back so the next line could fight, so that there were always the most fresh men doing the fighting). I think they are analogs to modern Sergeants, in that they had immediate command over the smallest unit of division.

>How were orders relayed when battle was already underway?

I'm trying to think if I've ever actually read about this. I want to say that it was with a combination of sounds (horn blasts, etc.) and runners passing along orders from the general. I'm not entirely sure, though, and I think a lot of it is based on speculation (I listened to a History Podcast that had a discussion with historians specifically about how Caesar managed to get his charging army to halt at the Battle of Pharsalus). I think a lot of it came down to Centurions being very aware of the situation and enforcing the orders that came down the chain of command.

> What were the rules legions followed to stay cohesive?

I think there are a lot of answers for this. For one thing, discipline was very, very strict. As in the legionaries were more afraid of their commanding officers than the enemy so they stayed in formation and kept moving forward.

Another thing was staying near their standards. I think each Cohort had it's own standard (maybe century? I'm not sure of the details) but they were supposed to stay near their standard and head towards it if they ever were split up.

> How did legions deal with limiting obstacles like gates, bridges and forests that would limit their movement and formation options?

I'm not sure, really. I don't think I've read anything about that. I would assume that they would do their best to stay in formation (as their are several disasters in Roman military history that came from marching in sloppy formation and being ambushed) and probably go around/through obstacles in cohorts or smaller units. That's just my guess, though.

> How did they deal with assaulting cities where they could easily be ambushed?

Definitely not standard practice, but The Battle of Alesia is a really good example of Roman engineering mastery. Basically, Caesar built a ring of defensive works facing the city and then a second one facing towards incoming reinforcements.

For the most part, though, I don't think the Romans really dug in for a siege if they were vulnerable to an attack. In general (and this seems especially true for their wars against "barbarians"), ancient armies would throw their armies at each other in the field and a decisive victory could easily mean your opponent had no army in the field. Also, I think the main point of a real siege was to deny food and water going into the city as opposed to breaking through the walls like in Rome: Total War, so a smaller force could do the job letting most of the army to battle anything in the field.


Again, like I said, I'm just a fan of this stuff. If I made any mistakes please do correct me. I like learning about this stuff and would find that really valuable.

Also, Anomalyzero, if you're interested in this stuff a really good book that I've read (well, actually got it as a download from Audible but the effect is the same!) is Caesar's Legion by Stephan Dando-Collins. It has a lot of details about the day-to-day life of the legions. Also, for more general Roman History I can't recommend The History of Rome podcast enough. It's great stuff.

Hope you found any of that interesting/helpful.

Though not a historian, Roman History is certainly one of the subjects I study most intensely outside of my own field... and Caesar is absolutely one of the most intriguing men in the long History of Rome. Every time I think I've got him figured out, I find a bigger and better story - Alesia I can picture in my mind as just... a scene out of an Airplane-esque comedy. I'm sure you've heard of it, if not read it, but for the others that may see this - Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome is a really accessible and fun telling of just how incredible Caesar was as a commander, and the amazing lengths his men would go for him. It tells the story of Munda in pretty great depth, and provides a picture of Caesar the man, which goes on to provide insight into Caesar the legend...

As time goes on, I find myself more and more convinced that events did, in fact, happen during the Consulship of Julius and Caesar, with Bibulus sitting around being a nice catalyst for Caesar to work against.

tl;dr - Roman History is amazing. It's the most entertaining subject you'll ever study.

OP you wanna look into the 10th Legion. These guys were some serious badasses and they belonged in Gaius Julius Caesar's army

http://www.amazon.com/Caesars-Legion-Julius-Elite-Armies/dp/0471686131

They were recruited in I think southern spain, and they were some fierce warriors. they fought with Caesar throughout the entire Gaullic conquests and through all of his civil war battles too. so that's a full SIXTEEN YEARS of full on military experience. actually caesar kept them in the service for longer than 16 years because he knew his only chances resided in keeping those super disciplined and skilled warriors.

they were especially useful in the battle of pharsephelus

http://fe867b.medialib.glogster.com/media/8e/8e6e1f0c5614b07a711bcc0e9aab1acffc08bc69f1a3a353e9db6324255c4e1e/pharsalusbattle.jpg

think of them as those 6 cohorts on the right flank that pushed back towards pompeys left. caesar had his legionairies lie down in the tall grass and keep their pila (spears) out. caesar knew pompey was gonna depend on his cavalry on his left flank to try to overrun and outflank him so caesar knew he HAD to stop this cavalry charge. well, he ordered his 6-7 cohorts of 10th legionaries to stay hidden in the grass until they saw pompeys cavalry come up close enough and then to STAND UP and STAB SHIT when the horsemen got within range. his men did exactly that because they loved caesar and were incrdibly well disciplined just from being with caesar for so long.

of course they stood up and scared all of pompeys cavalry away doing an incredibly job at defending the flank. this allowed caesar's troops to outflank pompey and all was lost.

sorry for the shitty pictures but my laptop is dying. feel free to answer me literally anythign about this battle even if its a really hard question!

This book, Caesar's Legion is a really good look into the Roman military and tactics used at the time, though it focuses on one specific legion. It's extremely interesting to read, and well researched. Definitely not like most history books.